From Few and Expensive to Many and Cheap: The British Book Market 1800–1890

Books were expensive and most people did not buy them because they couldn't afford it. In the last decade of the nineteenth century, however, novel buyers had more of a choice than waiting years to buy the next novel in a series. The novels were separated into volumes or monthly parts. The newspaper also transformed. It went from all texts, ads on the first page, and no illustrations to front page banner headlines and cartoons.

The railway system in Britain starting a revolutionizing transportation method that impacted the textual culture. The trains carried printing machines, paper and more! This made transportation of newspapers and magazines much more quicker and efficient overall. 

New copyright laws were implemented during this time such as in 1842 which extended copyright to 42 years or seven years after the author’s death. These new laws gave authors the potential to make a lot of money from their writing. With this era also rose the literary agent who, for 10 percent, would take on most of the negotiations the author would encounter.

 Chapbooks were already cheap books intended for the literate or for the poor. These were sold in markets. They were about 24 pages, small, and told mostly fairy tales. Printed play was another form of cheap text. Many novels began selling as weekly parts so they would be more affordable. Loaning instead of selling was also very common for text. The birth of the library happened during this time!

Comment: I enjoyed learning about the growth and desire of being able to get a book to read. During this time, many people craved to read novels and really anything of the sort. Books were too expensive at the beginning and one could plainly see this desire to learn to read by reading about the main priority of the publishing industries… to make it cheap for everyone. The publishing industries tweaked the way that text was created to satisfy the people. Learning about this era was truly lovely. 

Question: With the growth in technology that we have today. Everything is digital. You can even find articles and download books online. Back then, however, libraries were a place where many needed to go to be able to read a book. With this said, do you feel that libraries are still very essential today when compared to the past?